Sibelius Announce Worldwide Availability of Groovy Jungle Music Software

Program for 7-9 year olds is the latest in the groundbreaking Groovy Music series for elementary schools

31st August 2006 - Sibelius today announces the global availability of Groovy Jungle, the second part of the groundbreaking Groovy Music series of education software for 5-11 year-olds. Groovy Jungle immerses children in a jungle adventure that inspires them to understand, learn and compose music. The program is highly engaging and incorporates the latest proven approaches to child learning and development. It supports all elements of different music curriculums for 7-9 year olds.

Groovy Jungle is part of the Groovy Music suite of programs for the entire age range at elementary schools. Groovy Jungle follows on from Groovy Shapes that is for 5-7 year olds, and leads onto the Groovy City, which is for 9-11 year olds, which is due for release in winter 2006. Both specialist and non-specialist teachers can teach music easily and effectively using Groovy Music, whether or not they themselves are able to read music.

Characterized by eye catching cartoon animations, each Groovy Music program is split into two parts, ‘Explore’ and ‘Create’.  In the Explore section children are guided aurally through a series of musical activities and games that teach them how music works. Once the students are familiar with Explore they move into Create where they are able to put into practice their new knowledge by creating original tunes. Groovy accommodates any style of music, giving it huge appeal to the broadest of tastes.

GROOVY SHAPES (5-7 age range) is the first of the three programs in which children learn about basic music concepts.  Shapes are used to represent elements of music such as rhythms, melodies and chords.  The progressive exercises simplify class preparation for teachers, and because instructions are given aurally, no reading is required.

GROOVY JUNGLE (7-9 age range) continues to explore notes and notation and simple musical terms. Music can now be added to a composition by recording from a keyboard or other MIDI instrument. In addition, more complex musical instruments and textures can be explored and developed.

GROOVY CITY (9-11 age range) is designed in a cool, futuristic city theme which appeals to the older elementary school child.  It teaches students more about notation and asks them to complete more complex listening tasks.  The program has a library of sounds, including repeatable patterns. Students are also introduced to question and answer phrases and the blues scale, so that they can begin to build up more sophisticated compositions.

Sibelius Software MD, Jeremy Silver, comments: “Kids love using Groovy.  We’ve spent months testing this product with children and teachers and we are delighted that the overall consensus is that teaching and learning music has never been so easy or so much fun - that’s got to be a great boost for getting young children fired up about making their own music.”